I went to see American Aquarium’s lead singer, BJ Barham, do a solo show at The Bluebird in Nashville. He has a song that includes the lyric “pecan pie.” Before playing it, he introduced the song by saying:
“Now, before I play this, I know some of y’all are going to say I mispronounced ‘pecan pie.’ But let me explain. When a pecan is on a tree, it’s pronounced pah-cahn. When it’s on the ground, it’s pah-cahn. When it’s sold in a store, it’s still pah-cahn. But the minute you put it in a pie, it becomes a pee-can.”
He said he once told that story at a club in northeast Tennessee, and a drunk woman shouted that he was wrong. Her man had her back and said, “Sir, my wife is correct. I’m a professor of English literature at East Tennessee State University, and I can attest—it’s still pah-cahn.”
BJ said, “I knew I had one shot, and I took it. I looked at him and said, ‘You don’t have tenure, do you?’”
He said the man just sat down.
Then he added, “Here’s that super sad song.”